Califonication

The last week and a half were devoted to traveling around California, seeing as much as possible and meeting as many people as possible. In a way I felt like I was on a campaign trail, but it was just because Kat wanted to show off all the cool sites and get me to meet her friends and family. Mission accomplished. Listed are some of the things that stood out.

1. Magic Mountain- I do not recommend going to Magic Mountain on a Sunday in July. There's just too many people. Also two of the roller coasters broke down while we were in line. There's one coaster, The Extreme, that I really looked forwards to. It's motto was something like, "Experience the rush, experience the adventure!" All I got to experience was the line. It was one of the coasters to break down. And when you think about it, that's pretty scary; having a two coasters break down right before you get on them. Was there some duct tape that came loose or something? Enough of the bitching, Kat got to hear me do enough of that. Despite the long lines and a few mishaps Magic Mountain was worth it. Ride the Deja Vu if you ever get a chance.

2. The Wild Animal Park in San Diego- There's lots of animals. It is cool.

3. The La Brea Tar Pits- In Hollywood there's a series of tar pits in which prehistoric animals would get stuck. Eventually some of the tar pits dried out leaving perfectly preserved fossils of saber toothed cats, mastodons, birds and wolves. It's a science and nature geek's paradise.

4.The Winchester Mystery House - Okay, here's Sara Winchester's history wrapped up all nice and tidy: a) Sarah marries William Winchester, heir to the fortune of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company b) Sarah's husband and daughter both die c) Sarah sees a psychic who tells her that the bad luck is because of all the people killed by Winchester rifles d) the psychic also tells Sarah to build a house for her and the spirits and that building should never stop, and that's what Sarah did; she continually built her house for the next 36 years. Eventually the house would contain 160 rooms, 47 fireplaces, 40 bedrooms, 6 kitchens, 52 skylights, and 1 shower. Now, instead of annoying spirits wandering throughout the house there's just annoying tourists.

5. In and Out Burger- I had never been to one of these before and In and Out is the first fast food restaurant to live up to the hype proclaimed about it. They were the official sponsor of our trip.

6. Sonoma- Sonoma is wine tasting country and so that's what I did, tasted the wine. Kat and I went to three tasting rooms and by the third one my tongue had a blow out. I rescued it by going to the Irish pub and ordering a beer.

7. The Russian River- Kat and I went on a "river rafting" trip down the Russian River. You know that a river is pretty mild mannered when your guide doesn't accompany you and just tells you to call him on your cell phone towards the end. Still, this trip was great. We just sat in the inflatable kayak, drank wine, swam and occasionally paddled. There were rope swings and many beaches. It was perfect.

8. Jet Blue in Long Beach- Jet Blue is a company known for their laid back style, maybe a little too laid back. At the Jet Blue terminal in Long Beach there were four flights taking off at roughly the same time. The announcement to board was made but no gate or flight number was mentioned. This caused everyone in the terminal to get up go and go towards their gate because everyone thought their flight was boarding. This then caused some of the Jet Blue sales associates to get angry and make the announcement that the plane was not boarding and everyone should sit down. Once again this was done without mentioning a gate or a flight number. I just sat in the back and played my Nintendo DS.

There were quite a few other things, Pacific Beach, The Getty, Venice Beach, San Fransisco and so on but who wants to hear me go on forever. I have to thank Kat for having infinite patience with me. As if traffic isn't bad enough it's worse when a person won't stop bitching about it (that person was me). She was also a great tour guide and put up with my dumb questions, the most prevelant being, "Is this gangland? Are we in gangland now?" I want to thank all of Kat's friends, and now my friends, for being so nice and occasionally letting us crash at their places. All in all the trip was one of the best ones I've ever taken and the cool thing is there was still lots to see that we didn't get to, stuff that has been saved for next time.